CORRUPTED PASO INFERIOR reviews

Specialists/collaborators reviews

"Paso Inferior" is the debut full-length studio album by Japanese doom/sludge metal act Corrupted. The album was originally released through Frigidity Discos in 1997.

"Paso Inferior" consists of one 41:46 minutes long track. The music style is brick heavy and repetitive doom metal featuring a bleak atmosphere. The crushingly heavy riffs and almost funeral doom paced rythms are complimented by the omnipresence of guitar feedback throughout the whole track. As you can maybe imagine "Paso Inferior" is as a consequence quite the punishing listen. The vocals on the album is beastly growling. The vocal performance is very convincing and definitely one of the greatest assets to the music. I´d like to mention the organic sound production as a great asset too. I absolutely love the sound on this album.

The track is structured with about 3 minutes of feedback before the drums, the more "regular" heavy riffing and the vocals kick in. This then almost goes on for the duration of the track until about 2 minutes before the end of the track. Then we´re back to a feedback only finale. It´s overall an extremely punishing listen as there are no real climaxes on the album. The bleak atmosphere, the crushingly heavy riffs and the brutal vocals just keep playing and playing and I´m left with a feeling of dread and at times even physical and mental discomfort. The feedback squealing occasionally provides sections of the track with an epic touch, but those moments are brief and are never allowed to develop further.

"Paso Inferior" is an atmospheric and hypnotic listen and it´s doubtful music like this has a broad appeal even within the heavy metal community. Personally I find the album fascinating albeit a bit too long for comfort. About half way into the album I begin to wonder when it´s over, but somehow I´m still intrigued by the disturbing emotions the music stir up in me and I can´t help to listen until the bitter end. As a musical experiment "Paso Inferior" succeeds greatly. As an enjoyable listen I guess it depends on the ears that hear. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

Corrupted were a simple band once upon a time, albeit still incredibly good at what they did. Their debut full length album, Paso Inferior, is one 41 minute long dirge of a track, one of, if not the heaviest sludge metal albums I've heard in my time.

What makes this album both their purest sludge album and their most inaccessible? Aside from the one track, it's also basically one riff, flayed to bits, akin to a feedback laced drone injection, whirring razorblades and baseball bats around inside your eardrums. A sandwich of screechy, livid hate. A cacophony of pitch black doom.

It's an intense listen, and that's the impression I got before I heard the vocals. Man, Corrupted has a great vocalist. You know, it's strange to hear death metal tinged vocals in sludge, but also great. A japanese band that sings in Spanish? Well, that's Corrupted for you. Sure, I don't know what the band is really singing about, Spanish is not my forte, but judging by the musical accompaniment, I doubt it's anything too upbeat.

There's no real climax to the piece, but then there's no real structure, aside from a three minute feedback intro that leads straight into the dirge, then a similar outro. One long journey of darkness.

Doom/sludge music is rarely this uncompromising, and in creating an atmosphere and sticking it out to the bitter end is noteworthy. Is it a good listen however? Depends how much doom/sludge you can handle. If you're not an avid uber-heavy music buff, listening to this could be a form of torture. I'm listening to it now, and if you're not initiated, it can turn into background music, despite how aversive it is.

In conclusion, if you seek nihilistic and near deafening sludge - and you love Corrupted's later work, come see where they began, with this dirge journey into hell. You may well love it.